By By Robby Atkinson/staff writer
October 19, 2003
If you are a fan of the All-Star home run derby in major league baseball, then Clarkdale was the perfect place to be on Saturday afternoon.
The Lady Bulldogs used 13 homers and great defense to take care of Philadelphia (10-13, 21-6, 11-1) in the best-of-three series in the Class 2A playoffs and advance to play in the South State Championship next week.
In the first game the Lady Tornadoes used three late runs to take a 13-10 win over Clarkdale. The game went into extra innings and Shenique Brass came up with a clutch three-run homer to give Philadelphia the game one victory. She also had a solo homer in the fifth.
The Lady Tornadoes got things started in the first inning with a two-run double to take a quick 2-0 lead off the bat of Candisha Shannon. Clarkdale answered in the second with four runs and all four runs came by way of the long ball. Ashley Bye and Whitney Drachenberg connected for the home runs in the second. Bye also banged out a homer in the sixth.
The big inning for Philadelphia came with six runs in the sixth inning to take a 10-7 lead. The big blow of the frame was a grand slam from Shanese Hunter that gave the Lady Tornadoes a three-run lead. Philadelphia was able to hold off several late rallies to take the 13-10 win.
In game two Clarkdale used seven homers take a convincing 21-6 win. The first home run came from Alyssa Bye in the opening inning and it gave Clarkdale a quick 2-0 lead. Philadelphia answered with five runs in the bottom of the first to take a 5-2 lead over the Lady Bulldogs.
Alli Parsons and Erin Breland led the attack with RBI doubles. The Clarkdale offense took control of the game in the second with seven runs and take back the lead at 9-5. Megan Potate had a three-run round tripper, while Emily Howard connected for a two-run blast in the same inning. Savannah Satcher also had a solo homer for the Lady Bulldogs in the inning.
Potate also added a three-run homer in the sixth and Howard also chipped in with another two-run homer to lead the Lady Bulldogs to victory. Ashley Bye also homered in the sixth.
Brass homered for the Philly in the fifth.
In the final game of the three game series, the Lady Bulldogs scored early and often to complete the series win by a final of 11-1. Philadelphia got their only run in the first inning off an RBI single by Hunter.
Howard brought the score to 1-1 with an RBI single and moments later Sabrina Woodall added a run scoring single to give Clarkdale a 2-1 lead. The final two runs of the inning came off a fielder's choice by Lindsey Dawkins and a single by Brandy Wright.
Clarkdale dominated the rest of the game with a pair of home runs by Alyssa Bye and an RBI double from Savannah Satcher to help the Lady Bulldogs advance to the next round.
Clarkdale will travel to Enterprise for the South State Championship on Tuesday.